At the VA, the second-largest cabinet agency, Mr. [Jesse Brown] liked to call himself the secretary "for" veterans affairs and said he had won several battles with Congress because "we hold the high moral ground."

Then-Rep. G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery (D-Miss.), who was chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said of Mr. Brown's 1992 selection to the VA post that Brown was "the best possible choice . . . in these crucial times."

Mr. Brown also managed something observers felt to be nearly impossible: He got the veterans' lobbies to accept the need to close VA medical facilities that were outdated, uneconomic or of less than top quality.

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